Thursday, December 31, 2009

When we walk down the commercial streets of the most vibrant and visionary cities of Pakistan in the past, we still see people heading for their offices in a rush like in any other commercial hubs of other countries.

I always asked myself some questions. Should i follow the negativity in the media about ailing dictatorship or politics and loose myself? Should i move out of Pakistan and become a part and parcel of some hopeful future abroad? Or should i just keep on struggling like my fellow youth and live with the fact that we are not heading for success?

Most of the technology based private companies such as BPOs or Software Development companies or 3rd generation office equipment providing companies...the list goes on, have clients outside Pakistan. Our main focus is the US, EU, Scandinavian and western markets. This is the reason for our technology driven companies' success. Is'nt it? Now that's a decent approach towards providing the youth with international exposure under a roof in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad. We cannot agree more to it.

Not to forget, we also possess technology driven telecommunication industry which hosts world's largest and most experienced telecom companies including Orascom, Telenor (Norway), Warid Telecom (Abu Dhabi Group),China Mobile and Etisalat, a UAE based company. As per Pakistan Telecommunication Authority(PTA), we have 94.3 million mobile subscribers in Pakistan. For the first time ever in the history of telecommunication industry of Pakistan, there were job cuts in the telecommunication sector in the year 2008-2009. Before you can answer this question, let me add to it. It was not due to recession. Rupee depreciation, power cuts and political instability lead to retreat of 48% investment made into this sector.

This is just one example of a multibillion dollar industry trying to sustain the economic dillema. Why are we talking about this? What are we trying to get to?

Pakistan's youth wants to deliver the best for their country. But are we always looking for International Investments OR International Aid for 80% population living for less than a dollar a day? We have heard our leaders screaming in speeches that we need trade and not aid. But soon after that, we are seen heading to IMF. Once the loan is sanctioned, we are happily announcing an addition of few billion dollars in our foriegn reserve? Are we contradicting ourselves?

So, what's the solution? We all can come up with suggestions. There has to be a solution because every child is born naked. It is the influence of the human environment that puts clothes on to the body. We have some seriour patch work that needs to be done in the country. For that to be done, all segments of citizens of Pakistan living in and out of the country need to contribute. The rich do not have to invest all their fortune in Pakistan. But in addition to the investments made abroad, a sizable share SHOULD be contributed to the economy in Pakistan. But the question is, where do they invest? Anything that utilizes the educated youth's talent. It can start with a service providing industry which is tech oriented without investment for physical goods. As and when the credibility of the cautious investors increase, it can open gate to other form of investments. When these jobs will open doors for the youth of today, they will contribute more and more towards success of their Nation.

Our Media should also start focusing on educated and career oriented programmes at a little higher pace than it shows political programmes. They have to understand that not everybody wants to pursue politics. We have enough people to run politics and enough people to point out what's not going right and where to critisize and condemn.

Once a Swedish friend of mine, living in Dubai asked me, Do you have roads in Pakistan? What about buildings? What about quality education? After thinking about the reasons for these questioning i concluded that we do not have to open doors for money from our international friends. We have to open doors for international community to visit our place, work in our country and move freely in our country, like how they move about in Malaysia, Dubai, US, UK, Canada....again the list goes on. International community comprises of Arabs, Europeans, Africans, Americans, etc. Every place might have their own set of problems. But those set of problems SHOULD NOT be the fact that we see a foreigner only in posh and highly secured areas of our country. Anyone who has lived anywhere abroad will agree to the fact that we learn a lot from interaction with different cultures, traditions, foods, etc. We just have to change our mentally from "Clash of Culture" to "Culture Education". When we invite people, they will like us. If they like us, they will like talking to us. If they talk to us and try to understand us, they will like buying something from us or sell something to us.

Having said this, in order to acquire and achieve these milestones, we need to have our security at home, town, city, states and country at its best. It is the platform of every country. If we have a flawless security today, we will definately succeed by the next decade. We can then call our selves a nation with an economic boom, an educated youth and a country hungry for more. It is not an unachievable mission to Jupiter as of today. It can be done. We have to get ourselves together and omit the sentence "Its all about politics and it is all corrupted, etc"

We do not just have to be friends for money with China, USA, UAE, etc. We have to rather befriend our exhausted self and invite people to read our minds, understand our trends and then invest in our wonderful land rich with many resources that can contribute to the progress of the rest of the world.

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I am a blogger because i like sharing my views about news, Education, Career, life, countries, laws, current affairs, politics, etc.
I am born and brought up in Dubai and lived most of my life in middle east.
I am from South-East Asia.
I always analyze news and share my views, on the basis of objectivity and transparency which will enable us to think and lead ourselves in a better way.
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